{"id":737716,"date":"2026-06-15T08:34:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T08:34:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/737716\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T08:34:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T08:34:16","slug":"former-afl-footballer-nick-stevens-jailed-over-170k-mildura-pool-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/737716\/","title":{"rendered":"Former AFL footballer Nick Stevens jailed over $170k Mildura pool fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former AFL footballer Nick Stevens has been jailed for nine months for defrauding six families through an unlicensed pool installation business in 2017.<\/p>\n

The 46-year-old, who played 231 games for Carlton and Port Adelaide, was found guilty in March of dishonestly obtaining financial advantage<\/a> by deception.<\/p>\n

He took payments for pools from home owners in the Mildura region in 2017 without holding a builder’s registration, permits, or proper insurance.<\/p>\n

Victims were left with improperly installed pools<\/a> or unfinished holes in their backyards.<\/p>\n

In sentencing, County Court judge Fiona Todd told Stevens he exploited his victims’ trust and good nature.<\/p>\n

“They asked to see the documentation, you gave them false reassurance,” she told the court.<\/p>\n

“You exploited the kind of small-city trust that binds a regional community. Everyone took you at your word, they did not insist on paperwork early on, and you exploited that goodwill.<\/p>\n

“What you did had a corrosive effect on the currency of goodwill and trust [that] does so much good in the community, especially in a small one.”<\/p>\n

\"man<\/p>\n

Nick Stevens has been sentenced in court after being found guilty of fraud and deception. (AAP: David Crosling)<\/p>\n

A pre-sentencing hearing was told Stevens’s offending resulted in a marriage breakdown for one of the families involved, and that other victims had been left financially crippled.<\/p>\n

He spent 78 days in pre-sentence detention at Hopkins Correctional Centre in Ararat where he was isolated for 23 hours a day for his protection, due to his notoriety as a former footballer.<\/p>\n

The court heard Stevens had previously spent six months in jail for domestic violence offences in 2015<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Stevens, who played 231 AFL games before retiring in 2009, was also convicted of using a false document.<\/p>\n

Pools found non-compliant<\/p>\n

Stevens became a distributor for Leisure Pools Australia in Mildura in 2017, having previously installed legally compliant pools under the supervision of a registered builder.<\/p>\n

He then went out on his own without the required licence, registration, permits or insurance.<\/p>\n

Six families paid him more than $167,000 between March and October that year.<\/p>\n

It came despite Mildura Rural City Council issuing a stop work order in May after the first victim’s pool, which was not connected to a pump or water, was found to not be legally compliant.<\/p>\n

Stevens continued to accept payments from other victims in June, August, September and October.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Nick Stevens played more than 200 games of AFL football for Carlton and Port Adelaide. (ABC News: Daniel Miles)<\/p>\n

He never lodged a permit application for the pools, or sought a building contract, insurance or oversight from a registered builder.<\/p>\n

Stevens’s lawyers had previously argued for a community corrections order, noting his client had not gambled the money away, and was a vulnerable prisoner.<\/p>\n

However, Crown prosecutors said Stevens had demonstrated no remorse since court proceedings began in 2021 and that prison time was warranted.<\/p>\n

Judge Todd said Stevens’s culpability rose as time went on.<\/p>\n

She considered the repeated nature of the conduct, the amount of money obtained, the consequences for the victims and the enduring period over which the offending unfolded.<\/p>\n

She also considered the lengthy delay of the case, and described Stevens’s prospects of rehabilitation as “decent”.<\/p>\n

Stevens will be released from custody in late December and begin a two-year community corrections order.<\/p>\n

It includes judicial monitoring and orders to carry out 120 hours of unpaid community work and not leave Victoria without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former AFL footballer Nick Stevens has been jailed for nine months for defrauding six families through an unlicensed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":684871,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[638,1783,152653,1108,161057,354,43,2732,7812,44,263380,30567,66334,44600,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-737716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-afl","tag-compensation","tag-county-court","tag-court","tag-deception","tag-fraud","tag-headlines","tag-jail","tag-justice","tag-news","tag-nick-stevens","tag-pool","tag-pools","tag-sentence","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=737716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/684871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=737716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=737716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=737716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}